Ulm followed gameplan to stop Virtus

ratiopharm Ulm came into the game with a plan to beat Virtus Segafredo Bologna and followed it pretty closely to notch an impressive victory on Tuesday evening.

“I thought we did a very good job of defending off-ball screens to the point that we actually gave up a lot of offensive rebounds because we were out of position. We wanted to focus on that,” Ulm assistant coach Tyron McCoy, who was the head of bench for the second straight with head coach Jaka Lakovic out with illness, said after the game. “And then try to take away some of the post-ups from Weems.”

One way to defend those off-ball screens was to be more physical and Ulm’s players never seemed to stop fighting.

“I think they played with more physicality,” Coach Sergio Scariolo of Virtus admitted. “From the first possession, they were stronger, they were getting into bodies with more decisiveness. I don’t know how many times we fell on the floor tonight, so they overpowered us. Physically, we were not really ready to respond.”

As far as taking away the post-ups from Kyle Weems, the Virtus small forward is a fine three-point shooter, but he averaged just 3.5 attempts from deep heading into this game. On Tuesday, he was forced outside and shot 7 threes, of which only 1 went in.

What else was in the game plan? How about playing great defense?

“We play well when we defend,” Ulm’s leading scorer on the night, Jaron Blossomgame with 20 points, said. “We want to get out there, disrupt passing lanes, disrupt hand-offs, all of that. And obviously rebounds. Finishing a possession with a rebound is the most important thing. Fortunately, we did that tonight and those things translate into wins.”

Ulm didn’t just rebound well; it dominated the glass. The hosts outrebounded Virtus 51-34. That marked the third-most rebounds in club history and its 18 offensive rebounds tied for Ulm’s second-best ever. Cristiano Felicio led the way with 13 boards, Blossomgame had 11 and Sindarius Thornwell added 9.

And finally, by playing physical defense, which helped generate 11 steals, and controlling the rebounds, Ulm had many opportunities for easy buckets.

“When we get stops, we have guys that can push the ball and run in transition,” Blossomgame added. “We’re all in great shape. We’re all athletic. So we are a very dangerous transition team, but we can’t get transition if we don’t rebound. And fortunately, like I said, we did that tonight.”

Let’s review:

Defend off-ball screens. Check Keep Weems from posting up. Check Physical defense. Check Control the glass. Check Score in transition. Check

And that’s how ratiopharm Ulm led from start to finish, won every quarter and rolled to an 84-68 victory over Virtus.